A Chance Encounter
by Niamh929
Summary: Bella meets a new friend whom she feels like she's known forever. [My first fanfic]
1. An accident of sorts

_I'm going to kill that Mike Newton_, I thought as I hoisted my small frame into the body of the beat up truck Charlie just bought. Earlier that morning, the truck had broken down on the way into school and I missed seeing Tyler Crowley's van sweep across the parking lot and smack into a line of cars near the gym. Tyler was in the ICU at Forks County Hospital and the whole school was a buzz with talk of seeing him that afternoon. 

Three hours ago, I was in the clear. I was planning to tell Charlie that I wanted to go back to Phoenix to live with my mom and her new husband, Phil. But, it was then that Mike Newton, at the beginning of biology, got up the courage to come over and sit with me. My lab table had been empty before I came to Forks High School. I sat alone, without a partner, waiting for the class to begin.

Mike threw himself into the seat next to mine. I glared at him thinking he was only sitting next to me to copy off my lab report. Mr. Banner waltz into the class and began lecturing. When the teacher had his back turned to room, Mike tapped my hip with his pen. "Uh Bella," Mike stammered looking at his feet dangling off his lab stool. "You wouldn't want to ask me to the dance, would you?"

I gasped audibly and turned beet red. "Mike, I ..." I stammered not knowing how to answer him. "I'm not going to the dance."

"Oh come on Bella," he said placing his right hand on my thigh. "It's just a dance. I'm not asking you to marry me." His hand began to rub circles on my skin. The sensation was wholly unexpected and completely unwanted.

I forcibly removed his hand from my leg and stood from my stool. "No," I replied more forcefully and headed for the front of the classroom with my bag and books in tow. I was almost at the teacher's desk when my natural talents took over. My shoe caught on a raised tile in the floor and I began to fall forward. The momentum forced my books from my hands, and to my horror, through the glass panes flanking the exit door. Both shattered with an earsplitting ring and shares of tiny rainbows rained down around me.

I lay in a heap with the glass sparkling in the light moving around me. Students crunched across the glass to come to my side. "Bella?" Mr. Banner questioned. "Bella are you alright?"

"Nurse," I squeaked. Glass in my palm and scratching sensations on my scalp was the worst of my injuries. The nurse called Charlie and, when he arrived, the principal called for both of us in his office.

"Officer Swan," the principal began.

"Chief," Charlie corrected.

"My apologies. Chief Swan, as you know, Bella had an accident today in her biology. From what we can gather she was leaving the class prior to dismissal when this happened," the principal turned to me, "which Miss Swan knows is against campus policy. There was destruction of public property and reparations need to be made."

_Reparations? Great._ "Monetary?" Charlie asked unflinchingly.

"No. Actually, we would like Bella to spearhead a new volunteerism project. We want you to lead the group. It's called Senior to Senior."

_Forced labor_, I thought. But I answered "Sure. No problem."

"We really need you to start today. Take a lay of the land, so you can recruit more volunteers."

_Victim_, I thought. "Sure. What am I doing?"

Charlie kicked my leg and shot me a glare. I sighed. "How can I help?" I asked again, more politely.

The principal pushed a pamphlet across his desk towards Charlie and I. "You'll be bringing senior citizens together with a member of the senior class. I want you to make the matches and train the senior here at school before they meet their partner at the New Horizon's home."

"Alright," I said with apprehension. "And, I go there today to meet the seniors at the home?"

Twenty minutes later, I was pulling myself into the cab of my truck cursing Mike. "Bella," I heard Charlie calling from his cruiser parked beside mine. "Bella. Please. Make the best of this, huh?" his eyes pleaded with me.

"Sure Ch … dad." I started my truck. The roar of the engine blocked out the noise of the _I love you _that I watched Charlie mouth at me. "I love you, too, dad."

I drove out of the school parking lot towards the nursing home on the edge of town.


	2. An introduction

My truck chugged along the roads of Forks and pushed towards a roaring 50 mph as I passed the "Leaving Forks" town sign. The nursing home was on the bank of the Sol Duc River, tucked away in the woods. An enormous lawn and six primordial cedar trees flanked the driveway. I pulled my truck up to the parking lot which wrapped around the small white house on one side.

A woman bouncy young woman with chestnut hair welcomed me at the front door and began a tour. She spoke so fast. I couldn't remember if she said her name was Doris or Dolores. "This is the front desk," she pointed to the wooden desk we were just standing at.

"Over here is our dinning room." The small room had about twenty tables that sat two comfortably. Each space was laid out, ready for the dinner rush which began at 4 p.m. on the dot.

"The residents sleep and live back there," she said pointing in the direction of a long hallway. "And the nurses are stationed here."

Soon, she was ushering me into the recreational room where thirty residents were in various stages of sleep. "This is Mrs. Bloom and Mr. Chien," she explained pointing to a couple playing a lethargic game of chess. Neither one looked up to greet me when I said _hi_.

"Oh well," Dolores or Doris said when they did not respond. "Well, you and I can talk for a while."

She pointed an unused sofa in the far corner of the room under a picture window. "Is it always like this?" I asked.

"Most of the time. They really get going when it's dinner time or when their relatives come to visit. That's why it's important that we get this program going. Some of these people are just floundering here."

"Hmmm," I said. _This is going to be impossible. How am I going to sell this to the senior class?_ "Tell me more about the residents. I need to find an angle to get more people interested in volunteering."

"Well," she began. "We're a live-in facility. Our residents range from Mrs. Bloom, you met her," she said with a wave to Mrs. Bloom who ignored her. "She'll be eighty-four next week to our oldest resident who is one hundred and five."

_A century of life to end up in this dump,_ I thought looking around at all the faces. _This won't be hard …. It's going to be impossible._

"Can I speak with some of them? See what kinds of things they like to do or, you know, might be interested in doing when the other high schoolers get here?"

"Sure," she answered. "Why don't you start with Ms. De'olosis over there? She's awake now."

Doris, or Dolores or who ever she was, walked me over to Ms. De'olosis. "Please call me Marj." The woman rasped in between her smoker's hack.

"Tell me about yourself," I asked plopping down in the love seat next to us. I watched as the young woman with the chestnut hair wandered off leaving me alone with the wizened old lady.

"… so then my sister and I took our act on the road. Barnum and Bailey's pick us up and …"

My attention snapped back to the woman whom I realized I had not been paying attention to. "You did what, Marj? You joined the circus?"

"Sure, sweetie," she answered me with a smile. "Everyone was doing that back then. The war was over. We had the bomb and everyone was in right high spirits. So Evelyn and I joined the circus and took our tight rope act on the road again …"

Her voice droned on and lulled me back into my daze. Minutes later, a voice announcing dinner spoke up over the loudspeaker and startled both Marj and I out of the naps we had fallen into.

Most of the residents in the room began shifting and moving about, reaching for the brakes on their wheelchairs, walkers or canes. A few moved without aid and helped the others through the doors to join the crowd moving through the hall towards the dinner.

Getting up to find the woman with the chestnut hair to tell her I was leaving for the day and would be back tomorrow, I noticed an old man sitting tall in a high backed chair. The chair faced the window that overlooked the Sol Duc River and the forests beyond.

_Doesn't he want dinner?_ I thought. I walked over to his chair and cleared my throat. "Excuse me, sir?" I asked hesitantly. "Do you want some help getting to the dining room?" 

With a slight tilt of his head, the elderly gentleman turned his head towards mine. "No, Bella. Thank you for asking though."

He knew my name. His gentle green eyes took in my hair, my face and the hand I had extended to help him out of his chair. "Thank you. But I think I will just take my tea in here."

My mouth hung open. "How do you know my name?" I asked astonished.

He chuckled and smiled a crooked grin. He pointed to my chest. I looked down. The woman with the chestnut hair had insisted I write my name on sticker. It was still clinging to my shirt. "Isabella Swan," he said. "You wouldn't be Charlie Swan's daughter?"

"Yes," I answered. Still taken aback, I repeated my first question. "Would you like to go to the dining room?"

"No, I would rather my tea here with you, if you wish?" he asked, a smile playing across his lips.

I looked around the room and realized that both tea and coffee carafes were displayed on a serving cart. "Can I help you?" I asked walking to the cart. I brought back the tea carafe, two cups, two saucers, the milk and the sugar bowl. The gentleman watched, unmoving, as I poured out a portion of tea for him and then one for myself.

He took the saucer and cup from the table and sipped, soundlessly. "Would you like me to tell you about myself?" he asked in a lilting voice.

I nodded my head still transfixed by the blazing green eyes peering at me out of the wrinkled face. "I was born in Chicago in 1901…"


	3. Waiting

"My father was a lawyer and from what I can remember, he was very good," memories sparkling in his eyes. "My mother was a woman of her times. She presided over the home, making sure that my father and my own wants were always met. In the summer of 1918, a month after I turned 17, the government changed the enlistment age to 18. The Great War was raging and I could not wait to sign up. My mother worried every night. I heard her praying for me to change my mind."

His eyes took in the deepening sky beyond the windows before he began again. "I never got to enlist."

"Why not?" a voice asked. My voice asked. I was surprised that I was so interested in his story.

"The Spanish Influenza hit the United States that summer. It reached Chicago by September. My father died in the first wave of the illness. My mother was grief stricken over the loss of my father. She threw herself into a spurt of volunteerism with the Red Cross. She began making bandages until they asked her to work in the hospital. _In_ the hospital," he repeated.

"She caught the influenza then. Without knowing it, she brought it back into our home and I was infected. We both ended up in the same hospital she had volunteered in. Within a week, she was gone too. Her dying words were to plead with the attending physician to save me. And save me he did. Night and day, the man placed cold compresses on me to lower my temperature. One night, I was sure I had died. The next day, I woke again and began to recover. Everyone was astonished and praised my doctor.

"After I recovered, I moved from Chicago to Seattle and then to Port Angeles. I followed in my father's footsteps and began a successful career as a prosecuting attorney. It was a moderately happy life. I was successful. I drove fast cars. I ate at expensive restaurants. I traveled around the world." His voice drifted again.

"And your family? Your wife?" I asked, tentatively.

"I never married. Please, do not misunderstand me. I had the chance. Many times, as a matter of fact. I was a quite attractive young man. Do not let this old fool in front of you mislead. I was popular," he said fishing through a wallet he had pulled from his trousers. He pushed a sepia colored photograph across to me.

In the photograph, a young man leaned against a high brick wall. Flanked by two women in light colored dress, he grinned a smile that did not reach all the way to his eyes. He was tall and fit. Athletic, but not overly muscular. His rolled up sleeves showed his well chiseled forearms and a hint of biceps. On his head, a hat was making a valiant effort to keep his hair unwraps but was failing miserably. At his feet sat a corduroy knapsack with a monogrammed "M."

I handed it back. "Why didn't you get married then?" I asked again.

He sighed deeply. "I never found my love. It was like I was always waiting for her to come walking into my life but she never did. I waited for a woman who loved me like my mother loved my father. I guess I just waited too long," he finished resignedly.

"I know what you mean," I answered absent mindedly staring out the window with the gentleman. "Can I tell you something?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Anything, Bella."

"Sometimes, I wonder …" I hesitated. "I wonder if there is a love out there for everyone. A person you're meant to love and who will love you, too. And if there is, I wonder if I've done something not to deserve that love."

"Why would you say that? You are so young." The man's voice dripped with sympathy. "And you're beautiful, Isabella. You will find your love, someday."

"Maybe," I huffed. Questions of loyalty and love had been roiling about in my brain since I came to Forks. Eric and Mike had been vying for my attention since I arrived and I had a sneaking suspicion they wouldn't be the last. I felt nothing for these boys. Love was supposed to be earth shattering and all consuming wasn't it? I felt like oil while every male around me was water.

"Bella," he said, his voice creamy and rich. My attention snapped back to his face. His eyes burned a brilliant emerald green. The depth of those eyes startled me. "Bella. You will know love. Just be open to it. Do not seek it for it will find you."

We had been talking for so long, we had not notice that the room had began to fill again. "It's time for night activities, Bella. And I think you better be heading home," a voice broke in. I had been mesmerized by the man's eyes and had not noticed the young woman at my side.

"Okay," stammered. I looked back to my tea companion.

"It was nice to meet you, Bella," the gentleman extended his hand to shake my own.

"The pleasure was mine, Mister ..." It was then I realized I did not know his name. He clasped my hand between two of his and kissed the top lightly. Electricity shot through my arm. His deep green eyes met my brown ones. He had felt the jolt, too.

"Mason. Edward Mason. And, believe me, the pleasure was entirely mine."

I tossed and turned the entire night. Mr. Mason's words ringing though my head. What he had said was turn. There might be love in the world for each of us. Even me. I finally feel asleep watching the dawn rise and sparkle through the early morning dew stuck to my open second floor window.

After school the next day, I returned to the home looking to speak with Mr. Mason again. At the nurses station, I found Doris (who was wearing a gold name tag to my relief) and asked where Mr. Mason was.

She looked down at a letter on the nurses' station, picked it up and led me to a small room away from the residents. "Bella, Mr. Mason passed last night in his sleep. He left a note for you. Do you know what this is about?" she asked looking at me suspiciously.

"No," I answered honestly. I was dumbstruck. I had just spoken to Mr. Mason yesterday. How could he be gone?

"Alright, I'll leave you alone for now," Doris finished closing the door behind her as she left.

On the white envelope in my hand was on word: Bella. In an elegant script, the letters danced across the page. I slide my hand under the closed flap, cutting my skin at the smooth corner. The blood made a quick pool and dripped on the very edge of the envelope. I ignored it and pulled the contents out. The picture I had seen of Mr. Mason's was inside. I gingerly turned it over looking for more clues. On the back he had written:

Bella,

I am glad that I waited.

Be safe.

Love,

Edward


End file.
